Can we a have a thread where those of us living and working in the corporate office world can come together, commiserate, share ideas, and legitimately triumph and succeed in these spaces?
I actually really like what I do (communications/PR), but the shit that always gets in the way of good work is the usual bullshit that governs the corporate office world -- office politics, layers of review/approvals, managing up (which I legitimately suck at and need to learn to do a better job of), and dealing with micromanagers and situations where there are too many cooks in the kitchen.
Vent, brothers and sisters. And maybe share ideas for how you overcame some of these common problems at work.
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I'll start.
My BF is a wizard at this shit, and really holds his own where he works. As someone who's been a director/manager before, he just owns these situations, whereas I'm a fairly new manager. He gave me the advice to really own my new title and mandate, and start putting my foot down about the better way to do some things. I finally did -- today. It was cathartic and fulfilling to finally say -- "no, this isn't the right way to do xyz process -- I'm going to suggest this instead based on my experience. Let's be agile and try this." And we did. And it worked well (so far). It involved the use of some Office 365 technology that the team had been afraid to embrace and use so far, insisting instead on old-fashioned practices that were slowing everyone down.
I don't know what the hell I've been so afraid of. This has empowered me to be more bold in other situations where I know I have a better solution.
Fuck yeah.
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And then - I'll ask for advice here, too. I seem to have a habit of landing jobs where I report to micromanagers. Or is it just that micromanagers are super common. I'm talking full on, "email so and so, CC these people, attach the documents in this format, send it between X and Y hours, and ensure you include exactly this kind of info. I like to do that. It's worked, so please do that." Like, I know how to email people. I know how to manage relationships. Calm down. How do I gain the trust required to not be so suffocated by this behaviour?
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Your turn!
edit- ah fuck, I put this in Hangouts instead of the regular Et Cetera forum, lol. Can someone assist in moving it? Thanks!
I actually really like what I do (communications/PR), but the shit that always gets in the way of good work is the usual bullshit that governs the corporate office world -- office politics, layers of review/approvals, managing up (which I legitimately suck at and need to learn to do a better job of), and dealing with micromanagers and situations where there are too many cooks in the kitchen.
Vent, brothers and sisters. And maybe share ideas for how you overcame some of these common problems at work.
--
I'll start.
My BF is a wizard at this shit, and really holds his own where he works. As someone who's been a director/manager before, he just owns these situations, whereas I'm a fairly new manager. He gave me the advice to really own my new title and mandate, and start putting my foot down about the better way to do some things. I finally did -- today. It was cathartic and fulfilling to finally say -- "no, this isn't the right way to do xyz process -- I'm going to suggest this instead based on my experience. Let's be agile and try this." And we did. And it worked well (so far). It involved the use of some Office 365 technology that the team had been afraid to embrace and use so far, insisting instead on old-fashioned practices that were slowing everyone down.
I don't know what the hell I've been so afraid of. This has empowered me to be more bold in other situations where I know I have a better solution.
Fuck yeah.
--
And then - I'll ask for advice here, too. I seem to have a habit of landing jobs where I report to micromanagers. Or is it just that micromanagers are super common. I'm talking full on, "email so and so, CC these people, attach the documents in this format, send it between X and Y hours, and ensure you include exactly this kind of info. I like to do that. It's worked, so please do that." Like, I know how to email people. I know how to manage relationships. Calm down. How do I gain the trust required to not be so suffocated by this behaviour?
--
Your turn!
edit- ah fuck, I put this in Hangouts instead of the regular Et Cetera forum, lol. Can someone assist in moving it? Thanks!